Eight billionaires call Virginia home according to Forbes annual list of all the billionaires in America. A list of Virginia’s riches folks from Patch.com:
- Jacqueline Mars, 79, is worth $23.6 billion and ranked at No. 33 on the list. Mars and her siblings inherited McLean-based Mars Inc., in 1999 when their father, Forrest Sr., died. Mars is known for candy (3 Musketeers, M&Ms, MilkyWay, etc.) but has many other brands outside the sweets area, including pet food and gum.
- Winifred Johnson-Marquart, 59, is worth $3.8 billion and is ranked at No. 546 on the list. Johnson-Marquart, of Virginia Beach, is president of the Johnson Family Foundation and an heir to the SC Johnson family fortune. The SC Johnson Co. is best known for brands such as Ziploc, Glade, Drano and Pledge.
- William Conway Jr., 69, is worth $2.7 billion and ranked No. 838 on the list. Conway, of McLean, is one of three billionaires who founded and control the $178 billion private equity firm Carlyle Group. He serves as co-CEO along with David Rubenstein. Daniel D’Aniello is chairman. They took the firm public in 2012; Conway previously worked for MCI Communications as CFO.
- Daniel D’Aniello, 72, is worth $2.7 billion and is also ranked No. 838. D’Aniello, of Vienna, is one of the co-founders of private equity firm Carlyle Group. Today he runs the day-to-day operations of the firm. Forbes notes D’Aniello’s humble beginnings, growing up in Butler, Pennsylvania, working to help his single mom by bagging groceries. He attended Syracuse University on a scholarship and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard. D’Aniello has made charitable gifts to several universities, including Syracuse.
- Steve Case, 60, is worth $1.3 billion and is ranked No. 1717 on the list. Case, of McLean, is the founder of AOL, and his investment company, Revolution, has funded startups like Washington, D.C.-based LivingSocial and Sweetgreen. Recent investments include DraftKings, a Boston-based online fantasy sports contest provider. In 1985, Case helped found Quantum Computer Services. He became CEO in 1991 and changed its name to America Online. AOL merged with Time Warner in 2001 in a $164 billion deal that was eventually deemed one of the worst mergers in history. Case chairs Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure, a nonprofit he founded with his late brother, Dan.
- Theodore Leonsis, 63, is worth $1.1 billion and is ranked No. 1941 on the list. Leonsis, of Great Falls, is the founder, majority owner and CEO of Monumental Sports, which owns several teams in Washington, D.C. Those include the NBA’s Wizards, the NHL’s Capitals, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and Capital One Arena.
- Matthew Calkins, 46, is worth $1 billion and is ranked No. 2057 on the list. Calkins, of Rosslyn, is the cofounder and CEO of Appian, a cloud computing company he began when he was 26. Nearly one third of Appian’s 350 customers are on the Forbes Global list of the world’s biggest companies. He is new to the Forbes list this year.
- Donald Trump, 72, who was a lifelong New Yorker until winning the White House in 2016, ranks at No. 715 with a net worth of $3.1 billion, earned in television and real estate.
For the second year in a row Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post topped the list with $131 billlion, at least until his divorce is settled.
